When Jerry Jones was planning AT&T Stadium in the late 2000s, he didn’t want just another NFL stadium. He wanted the fans to sit indoors and still feel they were in an outdoor game. But more importantly, he wanted the Dallas Cowboys to have a true home-field advantage. With massive glass windows in the East-West-facing AT&T Stadium, he killed two birds with one stone. He then pushed to have most Cowboys home games on the afternoon slate, having played 43% of their home games in the 3 p.m. Central Time window since 2020. And while every stadium has a quirk of its own, Jones helped put AT&T in a tier of its own with the opponents sun scouting. But more often than not, the flaw has become an issue for his own players. And with the season already kicking off on a losing note, the nuisance of the sun is up for reexamination.

This season, the Cowboys have six home games in the afternoon stretch, including tomorrow’s matchup against the Washington Commanders. At this point of the year, the sun’s glare will enter the stadium just about an hour into the 3:25 P.M. CT game. And as it turns out, while opponents usually plan their coin toss decision and more accordingly, the Cowboys actually do not. To tackle it, in August, Jones was considering tinting the windows. After all, the stadium had done so while hosting several FIFA World Cup games earlier this year. But the owner and general manager has hopped back on the same train, denying any such conversations.

“Well, I don’t know about any hints. I really don’t know about [surprising fans with window-tinting] that at all. And so, not necessarily,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “I’m not for sure what you’re referring to, but I don’t know of any plans to surprise our fans.”

AT&T Stadium is an architectural marvel, with two steel arches soaring across the length of the stadium’s roof, supporting the dome so that no interior pillars can block any view. But the flaw almost diminishes that beauty, and his players haven’t been quiet about it. In fact, sun scouting has become a big part of being in Dallas at this point.

How Dallas plans its sun scouting

Let’s go as far back as 2010, when Jason Garrett coached the team in the newly constructed AT&T Stadium. Then, football operations director Bruce Mays coached him to prepare for the sun by showing him pictures of the sun every 15 minutes apart ahead of every game practice. Then, they would decide that if they won the coin toss, they would defer the choice, effectively forcing their opponents to choose between kicking or receiving and him getting to choose the direction. One problem still existed:

“But the trickiest part of this thing is, everyone says, ‘Oh, you want to make sure your receivers aren’t looking into the sun,'” Garrett told Pro Football Talk in 2024. “You understand your receivers are the most important people to not look into the sun. But then your quarterback is looking into the sun.”

Their current head coach, Brian Schottenheimer, had also addressed the sun when, in 2024, a wide-open CeeDee Lamb missed a three-yarder in the end zone, dropping the Week-10 game to the Philadelphia Eagles.

“I couldn’t see the ball,” Lamb said after the loss, confirming what he’d gestured after he missed the ball in the end zone. “The sun.”

However, then-DC Schottenheimer shrugged off the issue.

“It was one play,” he said. “We are mindful of it, we talk about it and there are certain areas of the field where it definitely gets a little more difficult. But we can’t turn the ball over… “

Yet, not all players are on Jones and Schotty’s side.

The Cowboys players and opposing teams have long resisted the sun as a home advantage

You can prepare as much as you like, but sun scouting keeps changing based on the sun’s patterns, the month, the weather, and much more. In tomorrow’s game, it is very likely that the sun will affect the team in the final ten minutes or so. Come mid-October, however, and the sunset will shift by 30 minutes earlier. This would mean the teams will face the glare in the third quarter and also in the fourth quarter. That’s why, over the years, several Cowboys players have raised concerns about this issue.

WR CeeDee Lamb has been the most vocal critic of the design flaw. During that game against the Philadelphia Eagles in 2024, Lamb lost track of a wide-open touchdown pass in the end zone. After the play, he was seen gesturing frantically, pointing to his eyes on the sidelines. Later, when reporters asked him if the team should install curtains, Lamb replied:

“Yes, one thousand percent. Couldn’t see the ball, couldn’t see the ball at all.”

Wide receiver George Pickens also shared a similar sentiment when the afternoon sunlight disturbed him during a game against the Kansas City Chiefs last season. After dropping a deep pass from QB Dak Prescott because he was completely blinded by the west-end glass, Pickens didn’t mince words.

“I really couldn’t see the ball. It was the sun,” Pickens said.

CeeDee Lamb later even joked to Pickens about the drop, while telling him, “Welcome to Dallas, bro.”

It wouldn’t only be the Cowboys players. Visiting teams have often complained about the sun as well.

“That f—ing glare coming through that end zone in the afternoon is f—ing ridiculous,” the Chiefs tight end said on his ‘New Heights’ podcast two years ago. “Absolutely ridiculous. It’s like the glass makes it f—ing like spread more. It’s like the sun is bigger and brighter than it’s ever f—ing been.”

Jerry Jones wouldn’t even want to touch the windows

After CeeDee Lamb’s 2024 drop, Jones snapped at the reporters:

“Well, let’s just tear the damn stadium down and build another one. Are you kidding me?”

Not just that, Jones even claimed that the sun should actually benefit the Cowboys because they play there regularly.

“We know where the damn sun is going to be when we flip the coin… Everyone plays in the sun out here.”

But he was finally budging from his stance. During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, AT&T Stadium was forced to install temporary window tinting and blackout curtains on the west end. After seeing the results during the tournament, Jones confessed to liking the visual effect it provided.

Well, do you know something? Thinking about it and doing something about it are two different things,” Jerry Jones said in an interview with Fox4‘s Mike Doocy. “But I’ll think about it.

“It’s hard to tell that time of the year because the sun’s not the same this time of the year than it is in the fall. That is, you get on in, the sun changes, and the angle of that sun changes from September through the year around. But as we look at it, I like some of the effects of the tinting. We’re giving that a thought.”

It seemed like the players’ pleas were heard by the owner of the Jerry World. But just a month down the road, he has already flipped on his stance. Whether he will still surprise his fans or not remains to be seen in just a few hours.